The mainstream, the peripheral, the marginalized

WE all know that we ought to love everyone, since we all belong to one human family, created by God to be his people meant to share his life in heaven and while here on earth. But given our human condition, this love has to be expressed in different ways since all of us find ourselves in different conditions and circumstances.

Though ideally, we consider ourselves as one family, the reality is that differences and even conflicts will always be with us. There are differences that can be considered as natural, but there are also those which are unnatural since they are consequences of our sins and mistakes.

This is where we have to learn how to handle this phenomenon such that in spite of our differences and conflicts, we manage to love one another. We have to see to it that our love is universal and that despite our differences and conflicts, we manage to build and reinforce our unity, making it as organic as possible.

This is where we can consider the fact that in any given society, there are those who we regard as belonging to the mainstream, and those who are in the peripheral, and also those, given our human weaknesses, end up being marginalized, edged out due to some cases of injustice, neglect, etc.

The Holy Father has been talking a lot about reaching out to the peripheries. It’s a call worth echoing always, because we cannot deny that we have the strong tendency to be so short-sighted and narrow-minded that we attend only to our needs and those of our immediate circle of relatives and friends.

But it’s a call that should not be done at the expense of neglecting the attention and love due to those in the mainstream and those who are immediately close to us. That’s because only when we give love and attention to those in the mainstream and close to us would we be properly trained and enabled to reach out to those in the peripheries and the margins.

We just should make sure, however, that our attention to those in the mainstream and close to us does not stop there, but should motivate us to extend and expand our concern to others until we reach the peripheries and the marginalized and beyond. If our love is genuine, that is the dynamics it would take.

We have to steadily know and love others more and more. This is a task that should not stop. In spite of the many things that we may already know and that may show the enormity of our love, there will always be new things to know, new insights to learn, new issues to tackle. There will always be new demands on our love for others.

Everyday we have to be aware of these new things and be ready to face and resolve them. Though striking us as overwhelming, these can easily be handled as long as we are with Christ, constantly dialoguing with him, asking for help, for light, for strength. It would be as if we are in an exciting adventure, with a lot of suspense and excitement, but somehow assured that everything will just turn out right.

With our new technologies and, thanks to God, the many initiatives and living testimonies of people about how they reach out to others, this responsibility of growing in our love to reach out to the peripheries and the marginalized is immensely facilitated.

Everyday we should make new conquests in this regard. Are we reaching out to more and more people? Are we approaching that ideal described by St. Paul that we have to be all things to all men? Are we progressing in the love shown to us by Christ, a love that knows no measure?